46. Amber

Lucas stiffenson top of me, and he yanks his head up to stare in the direction of the howls, which are coming from somewhere near the entrance of the island.

Using his hesitation against him, I shove him off me.

He tumbles to the side, giving me the precious moments I need to scramble to my feet and grab my remaining dagger—the one that isn’t currently sitting on top of the guard’s ashes.

“Amber,” he says. “We have to get out of here.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I say, but he already has my hand, and he’s pulling me across the back of the stage, toward the aisle closest to the river that will take us up and out of the theater.

I resist.

Then, they appear.

Behind the back benches, at the top of the aisles, looking down at us from their perches in the night. They’re slightly taller on average than humans should be, and lankier. Darkness surrounds them—a darkness you can’t really see, but that you can feel.

There are maybe ten of them in all, although I have a sinking feeling from the attack in Central Park that there are more of them coming.

This is bad.

But what’s that one saying? The enemy of my enemy is a friend?

Lucas is a monster. The shadow souls, however, are worse. I have a better chance against them with Lucas by my side than if I’m alone.

Like deadly reapers, they start making their way down. Surprisingly slowly, as if we’re a meal they’re preparing to savor.

“Let’s go,” I say, and Lucas and I run, darting off the stage and into some undergrowth, hopping the metal rails to the closest path.

The river’s to our right. The exit is to the left, all the way across the island.

The moment we’re on the path, I hear more howls.

From the left, of course. Which gives us no other choice but to keep running along the back of the island, up a set of uneven, stone steps, and pray we can lose them for long enough to make our way out.

We could also launch a full-blown attack. But it doesn’t take a genius to know the numbers aren’t in our favor, especially given our current conditions.

The shadow souls are the predators, and we’re the prey. Not just regular prey. We’re weakened prey.

And what’s the best thing prey can do to try to live?

Run.

Plus, the longer we evade the shadow souls, the more time we have for our strength and magic to replenish.

So, together, Lucas and I scramble up more steps to the highest point on the island.

When we reach the top, we survey the landscape for the best route of escape.

We’re at the main lookout point, which gives us a great view of the Empire State Building to the left and the World Trade Center to the right. The only path out is the one from where we came.

We can’t stay up here. It’ll be too easy for them to corner us.

“That way.” I point over the rail and across some underbrush that leads to another path. One that seems empty of shadow souls.

Lucas nods, and we jump the rail, hurrying toward the exit.

Unfortunately, the bridge out of here is blocked by a handful of shadow souls. They haven’t spotted us yet, but if they do…

I reach for my magic to see if there’s anything I can use to blast through them.

Nothing.

Lucas is already spinning on his heel to backtrack down the path.

“Come on,” he says, pulling me toward an arch that looks like it leads to a fairy tale garden. “I have an idea.”

I don’t trust Lucas and his ideas.

But you know what I trust less?

The shadow souls.

So, I follow him under the arch.

We emerge into a sunken space with a circular, wooden platform in the center. Three rows of ascending benches are on the left, the river’s straight ahead, and there’s a stone wall to the right.

“Jump,” Lucas says, pointing at the river.

I stare at him, shocked. “Into the Hudson?”

“You’re a supernatural. You’ll survive,” he says with an amused smirk. “I’ll be right behind you.”

The Hudson River is so dirty that I don’t think even a supernatural could survive it. This might be another attempt of his to kill me.

But it’s either that, or facing the horde of shadow souls making their way toward us.

So, I take a deep breath, run across the platform, and leap over the fence.

Instead of soaring over it, I smack into an invisible wall and fall back to the ground.

Pain radiates through me, and I use my elbows to help sit up, catching my breath.

“What the hell was that?” Lucas says, by my side in an instant.

I stare up at where I tried to jump, blinking back into focus.

“It was like a force field.” I rub my forehead where it hit the barrier, quickly realizing what happened. “The duskberry.”

“The what?”

“Duskberry,” I repeat, but the confusion splattered over his face shows he has no idea what I’m talking about. “Long story short—I was tricked into eating a fae fruit when I got here. It put a spell on me so I can’t leave Manhattan.”

Lucas curses and glances out at the water.

He’s going to jump without me. Why wouldn’t he? He wants me dead. There’s no reason for him to stay here when the shadow souls are out to finish the job of killing me themselves.

“Get up.” He pulls me to my feet and glances at the small green lawn beyond the benches, which leads to another lookout point. “We’ll go that way. I’m not sure how we’ll get off the island from there, but we’ll improvise.”

“Why are you helping me?” I ask him.

“Because I was never going to kill you.” He sighs, exasperated. “I just wanted to get you on my side, so you’d fight with us in the war. Now, are you coming, or not?”

After what happened in the amphitheater, I don’t believe he doesn’t want to kill me. But he’s not abandoning me, and that’s really all I can hope for right now.

So, I scramble to my feet and hurry with him to the benches.

We don’t even make it onto the grass before we see them.

Shadow souls. Coming from all directions. It’s like they all appeared at once, and they’re surrounding us, so our only way out would be into the river.

Which, clearly, isn’t an option.

Come on, magic, I think, reaching as far for it as I can. Come back.

No luck.

Maybe I blew a fuse when I electrocuted Lucas. Or maybe the poison is finishing its job.

Either way, burning the shadow souls isn’t an option.

So, I curse and hold up my dagger, ready to strike.

Lucas is doing the same.

We stand with our backs toward each other, knees bent, bracing for attack.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t come. The shadow souls simply inch toward us, their ghoulish eyes hollow and hungry, like dark angels in the night.

“What are they doing?” Lucas asks, sounding as surprised as I feel.

“I don’t know.” I tighten my grip around the handle of my dagger, searching for a way through the shadow souls.

There isn’t one.

They have us outnumbered, weak, and cornered. If we throw ourselves at them, we’ll probably be toast.

But what other options do we have?

Before I can come up with one, soft, haunting chimes break through the eerie silence of the night.

I know where they’re coming from. I remember it from my first visit here with Morgan. They’re tiles built into the ground near the entrance, for children to step on to make music.

Now, each note weaves a spell of stillness not just over us, but over the shadow souls, too.

Then, they stop, and the Shadow Lord emerges through the arch, the shadow souls parting to let him through.

He looks just like he does in my dreams. Tall, with an aura that commands the night, his presence terrifying and captivating at the same time. He moves with a grace that doesn’t belong in this world, each step slow and deliberate, and finally comes to a stop in front of me.

His eyes—a deep, endless black—fixate on me, and I’m as glued to the ground as I am every night we see each other.

But he says nothing, reveals nothing.

The message from the shadow soul in Central Park floats through my mind.

Your light calls to the Shadow Lord like a beacon in the darkness. He offers you a throne of shadows, a kingdom of night.

“What do you want?” I finally break the silence.

“I want you,” he says. “Only you.”

I narrow my eyes at him, although I don’t move away. “Unfortunately for you, I’m not an object to be claimed.”

He glares right back at me.

Then, he turns his attention to the shadow souls surrounding us. “Kill him,” he says simply, motioning to Lucas and pulling me aside to let them get to work.